Label: Island Records Release Date: September 2nd, 2016
Looking back at Beach Baby’s short but fruitful career is
like flicking through jaded photos of a child growing up. From the sublime
‘Ladybird’ that eased them into the spotlight last year, the London quartet
have grown with every release. True to this pattern, ‘No Mind No Money’ is a
reassured debut that strikes a perfect balance between the haziness of early
material, with a newly emerged air of confidence.
Addressing
a disorientating period of their lives - without making music that’s alienating
(or worse, dull) - is a pitfall joint frontmen Ollie Pash and Laurence Pumfrey
skilfully avoid, none more so than on the wobbly ‘Lost Soul’. Kitsch keyboard
hums swirl uncomfortably, like a carousel ride after too much candyfloss, but
intertwined vocals pleasantly deliver spellbinding lyrics.
The
foursome flourish when they’re at their most carefree. ‘U R’ has all the
makings of a classic pop song, and lands full marks in the re-recording game,
diced into a neat mid-album nugget that’s guaranteed to turn the stiffest of
frowns. ‘Ladybird’ also gets a brush up for the record, albeit a less severe
one; sonically it’s punchier than the original but retains its delicate
simplicity – not streets away from Bon Iver, from whom this act get their name.
The
record ends with a gloomier turn. ‘Powderbaby’ is a live favourite that on
record grumbles for a percussion-driven four minutes, and ‘How Lucky You Are’
eases a gentle comedown from these four romantics. From a band tipped for big
things over the course of 2016, this isn’t a debut that will smash open the
charts or catapult Beach Baby to headliner status. But as a good, clean
indie-pop record, it’s a solid foot in the door for an act with a prosperous
future ahead of them.
L-R: Lawrence Pumfrey, Ollie Pash, Hercules Iraklis, Josh Hodgson
Tonight’s
show marks the best of three for Beach Baby, who previously hit up Norwich
alongside Sundara Karma, as well as at Sound & Vision Festival last
October. Though they’re far better known now than they were six months ago, the
Arts Centre is hardly packed. But with a mostly teenage audience, there’s a
buzz of freshness in the air.
Slacker/surf
rockers Teen Brains are an act I’ve
caught numerous times supporting the likes of Peace and Blossoms, and it’s
clear tonight how much their performance has matured with time. They’re slick
and groovy, with debut single Annabel
standing out as a highlight but also as a clear indicator of just how much the foursome
has grown with time.
Main
support comes from Babeheaven, a
five piece from West London. Their music is quiet but dreamy, a tropical twist
running through what could easily drift into depressing territory but
delightfully doesn’t. Nancy Anderson fronts, her vocals delicate and innocent
over her all male band mates’ instruments. She notes how the audience, “don’t
talk between songs… it’s quite nice”, perhaps indicating that people don’t
normally listen at their shows. But Norwich is tentative tonight, and why
wouldn’t we be, when this act brings such caramel-golden swirls of downbeat
electro pop? With festival season coming up, this band is one to catch – Babeheaven
play the Lake Stage at Latitude this July.
Sleeperhead gets Beach Baby’s set underway with a long and furious drum intro before
its dizzying guitar melodies engulf the Arts Centre like a summer breeze. Lawrence
Pumfrey and Ollie Pash are the fronting half of the quartet, both strutting
about the stage casually but focussed intently on their instruments. Pumfrey
sports a baseball cap, which he quickly loses for the equally jangly No Mind, No Money. Ad-libs come few and
far between, perhaps an indirect response to tonight’s audience who are
slightly phased out to begin with. But Lost
Soul, “for anyone who’s a little lost in life”, ups the tempo and with it
the atmosphere.
Beach Baby
are a difficult bunch to pin down, musically. The foursome hardly sit at the
dinner table marked ‘punk’, although grungey, DIY undertones do surface occasionally
within their performance. Rather, they lean more towards the happy-go-lucky
summertime vibes of Britpop, no more so than on Limousine, a Supergrass-esque jam that tonight comes with an extended
outro for good measure. Ladybird has
a similar vibe, albeit with more solemn lyrics – see the ever bewitching hook,
“I don’t want to live for nothing, I don’t want to live”.
Powder
Baby is
tonight’s (as of yet unreleased) closer, a short but sweet punch of everything
Beach Baby provide: there’s fiery drums courtesy of Josh Hodgson as well as a hazy
guitar/keyboard combination that suggests big things are to come for this band.
Whether they’re set to make it remains to be seen, but tonight certainly looks
like the beginning of a bright future.
L-R: Lawrence Pumfrey, Ollie Pash, Iraklis Theocharopoulos, Josh "Shep" Hodgson
Few indie bands come as sugary
sweet as newcomers Beach Baby. The quartet’s delicious retro sound has already
seen them play shows for DIY, BBC Introducing and more, as well as get
attention from a string of equally ear catching singles. On their support tour
with Sundara Karma, they stopped off at Norwich Waterfront where we grabbed guitarist
Ollie and drummer Josh for a natter about the future.
How do you all know each other, and whose idea was the name Beach
Baby?
OP: I met Lawrence, our other
singer and guitar player, in Bristol about six years ago. We started playing
together, then we moved to London after we’d finished our degrees where we met
Iraklis [bassist] at Goldsmith’s College where I was studying. A bit later on
we were introduced to Josh from a mutual friend. So it was the old fashioned
way of meeting people along the way until you’ve got the right formula.
JH: The name comes from Lawrence.
He was listening to Bon Iver and they have a song called Beach Baby, which he
thought that would make quite a cool band name. We also wanted something that
was just quite easy to remember and would stick in your head. It seems to have had
that effect which is good.
How’s the tour with Sundara Karma been?
OP: It’s been good, very energetic.
Lots of sold out shows so we’ve played to more people consecutively than we
ever have done before. The reception has been generally pretty good, I think the
crowds have been really up for it. They’re quite a young audience, which is a
new thing for us, but it’s worked, it’s been a good opportunity for us to play
to teenagers whereas before we’ve only toured with bands with a slightly older
audience.
Do you remember your last show in Norwich, in October? What have you
been up to since then?
OP: Was that October? Wow, I
thought it was June or something. That must have been when we’d finished
recording. Or started recording. When in October was it? I remember the gig;
there was that guy there who kept shouting “mega”.
JH: Will Smith! Will Smith where
are you tonight? He was supposed to come to the one in Cambridge but I didn’t
see him. We’ve got a little Twitter conversation going on with Will Smith, and
he’s a flake. Will, if you’re listening, come on. Turn up. We thought you were
our boy.
OP: What have we done since
then? We went to America; we went to New York for CMJ festival. I’d never been
to America and as a band it’s quite exciting. We sort of had time to do touristy
things, we had days off. I saw the John Lennon memorial, Strawberry Fields,
which is quite a sight.
JH: I went to central park and
went on the swings. It was very nice. And just generally walked around.
Have you noticed yourselves improving as a band since then?
JH: For sure. The more you play,
the more at ease you become with doing the whole thing. From where I’m sat on
the drums, it feels like once you know the set, that’s when you can start to
have more fun with the crowd and have a good time.
OP: The more you play live, the
more comfortable you become with playing live, so it’s the only practice really
for getting good. In that aspect I think, even just on this tour, we’ve
improved. You get into a good rhythm.
‘Limousine’ is one of your best-known songs, but lyrically it’s
quite ambiguous. What is it about?
OP: It’s about losing control
and being immoral. It’s about someone who’s lost all perception of morality.
Just doing anything for a buddy up. It’s a… fictional person. Personally I like
listening to lyrics that are ambiguous. I like a narrative, like listening to
old folk songs and you get a sense of a story, but I also quite like more
abstracted, oblique messages in lyrics as well.
Who contributes when writing your lyrics?
JH: Ollie or Lawrence will come
along with an idea – either a verse or a guitar part or a chorus bit – and we
tend to explore it until it becomes slightly more formed. But sometimes we
might just be messing around musically and an idea might pop up. In that
respect, having two singers is good because they’ve both got different styles, lyrically
and all that, so it keeps it a bit fresh having two ideas which often will
merge and become part of the same song. Hence the synergy.
Who influences you? And what are your all-time favourite albums?
JH: I’ve been listening to that
band on your t-shirt, Sunflower Bean. I really like them a lot. I’ve been
listening to King Krule as well, fully back into that. On our headline tour
we’ve got wicked support. There’s Willie J. Healey, his music isn’t too
dissimilar from ours. He sounds a bit like The Maccabees but it’s more lo-fi
I’d say. He’s just a singer songwriter, but he’s got a band. Babeheaven are
really great too. My favourite album is Television – Marquee Moon.
OP: Revolver by The Beatles is
probably my favourite. It’s just the perfect record. It’s got everything. And
also, it’s probably one of the best Beatles records and they’re probably one of
the best bands and so, by that logic, it’s got to be one of the best albums
ever made.
What’s the inspiration behind the vintage/retro theme of your videos
and artwork?
OP: It came through working with
my girlfriend Lily [Rose Thomas]. She’s a photographer and video maker so she
just leant her style to us.
JH: With the last four songs we
just gave her the tracks and she interpreted them in her own way. The ideas for
the videos were a little bit our influence but for the most part we just let
her do what she felt was right for the song. It’s nice now when you see all the
artwork because they go together really nicely.
Georgia Groome and Perry Benson are in the ‘Sleeperhead’ video. How
did that come about?
OP: Georgia is a friend of
Lily’s and Perry is a friend of her mother’s. We needed some actors so we just
pulled as many favours as we could and they were the two people that we found.
JH: I’ve got a picture of Perry
in a car boot somewhere that I’m trying to find. He’d seen the other videos and
really liked them so getting him involved was really quite chilled and easy. He
was up for it. Ollie had to do a few scenes with him and obviously Perry is a
professional actor so Ollie was getting cracked up a lot.
The characters in the video kidnap someone. If you had to kidnap
anyone who would you choose and how would you do it?
OP: I think the obvious thing
would be to say a really beautiful woman. But I don’t think they’d appreciate
it so it probably wouldn’t be worth it. I’d like to kidnap someone entertaining
like that. Bill Murray, Jonathan Ross…
JH: I’d nick Jonathan Ross’
credit card and book a private jet pretending I’m paying for it. Fly across
America, go to Vegas, have a few days out, fly back to New York, have a nice
dinner and that’s it.
OP: I’d kidnap Paul McCartney. I
don’t know how I’d do it but I’d kidnap him then just get him to talk to me. Lots
of stories, not let him leave me until I was satisfied that I’d learnt
everything there is to know about the experience of being Paul McCartney. I’d
probably lure him in with some vegetarian food. He likes that.
JH: Meat free Mondays. I’m with
you.
Festival season is almost upon us. What have you guys got lined up
for the summer?
OP: We’re doing Live at Leeds,
we’re doing The Great Escape and Lodestar Festival in Cambridge. And there’ll
be more.
JH: Truck Festival, in Oxford.
Everyone seems really pumped for it when we tell them but I’ve never been.
Having seen the line-up and previous line-ups it looks quite good. If your
timing’s quite good at festivals you can get there early and check out some
bands, but if you’re a little bit late you tend to just get there, set up, go.
OP: When we played at Field Day
we saw Mac DeMarco, Savages, Patti Smith… ten minutes of Ride. That was quite
boring. But louder than all the rest for some reason.
Your headline tour comes straight after this one. Is it a big
commitment to be on the road for so long?
OP: It is quite tricky when
you’re trying to juggle different jobs and stuff, because we don’t have enough
money yet to do this full time. That’s where the main stress is.
JH: You’ve got to be quite
boringly organised when you’re away, like ‘I need a shift then, have you got
any work?’ all that stuff. But it’s worth it.
What comes next in terms of releases?
OP: We’re releasing more singles
but we have recorded enough material to make an album. When it comes out will
depend on a number of things, but it’s coming in the semi-distant future. Most
likely within a year.
JH: It’s not got a name so far.
The singles will be on it – Ladybird,
No Mind No Money – which we’ve
rerecorded. And Limousine and Sleeperhead. So those four songs will
definitely be on it.
Could
there be any better way to spend my inaugural visit to east London’s most
infamous back room – the Old Blue Last – than in the company of some of the
hottest new musical talent, tipped for big things this year by the indie powers
that be DIY Magazine? No, quite frankly. Getting a feel for the dark corridors
before doors opened, the night looked set to be an occasion to behold, and with
four fantastic new artists on the bill, it certainly was just that.
Fish live at The Old Blue Last
Kicking
off the show was London’s own teen grungers Fish, whose twinkly garage-rock tunes seeped out into the rapidly
filling room like smoke. Frontwoman Asha’s vocals were sinister but mesmerising,
a siren call dancing over a chunky bassline, not hugely different from the
likes of Bully or a juvenile Wolf Alice. Brattish smirks and the odd tongue
poke flaunted the four-piece’s infectious charisma, and ending the set with screams
of joy and Strokesy guitar riffs, it was all smiles from the get-go both
onstage and off.
Girli live at The Old Blue Last
Irrefutably
the highlight of the show, Girli came
next on the bill. Her iconic pink dress code and unapologetically pure pop
songs have been splashed across ones-to-watch lists since the end of last year,
and anticipation in the Old Blue Last was pushed to breaking point when she
finally swaggered up to the mic. From the first note of the 8-bit symphony ‘Girls
Get Angry Too’, the room was a riot, snarky quips about feminism and teen sexuality
spewing out forcefully over a pounding hip-hop beat. ‘ASBOys’ played out like a
call to arms for the wasted youth of London with its siren-laden verses, and new
material like ‘Girl I Met On the Internet’, an ode to the plastic princess of
Instagram, mixed laugh-out-loud lyrics with video game sound effects to create what
could easily become the most unlikely indie anthem of the year. ‘Fuck Right
Back Off to L.A.’ (from the ‘Girli FM’ mixtape) also got a play, a true site to
behold, as Girli and her partner in rhyme DJ Kitty flipped the bird in
synchronised choreography over the infectious “fuck you”-s of the chorus. Closing
on ‘So You Think You Can Fuck With Me Do Ya’ with a stage invasion in full
swing, the most energetic and utterly batshit set of the night concluded in a hurricane
of tampons, condoms and Hello Kitty chocolates being spewed into the crowd as
the storm of pink fury ended no less suddenly than it had begun.
Yonaka live at The Old Blue Last
Assuming
the night had peaked there, I headed outside, a decision I immediately
regretted when the thunderous sound of Yonaka
punched through the walls of the Old Blue Last, grabbing me by the scruff of
the neck and dragging me back inside. There I saw frontwoman Theresa Jarvis
half rapping, half howling to ‘Run’, the band’s phenomenal lead single, striking
a huge bass drum at the same time, and looking like a total fucking bad-ass too.
The few songs I managed to catch were infectious and primal, mixing elements of
Florence and the Machine’s ethereal ambience, Savages’ aggressive no-nonsense lyrics
and Haim’s trademark Cali-cool stage presence. Simply put, Yonaka are one of
the best new acts I’ve seen in a long time and you’d be a fool not to check
them out on their upcoming headline tour in March.
It
was at this point that the train home beckoned its cruel finger, so I didn’t
get to see Beach Baby rock the stage at the old bluey. Sad face. Nonetheless,
their latest single ‘Sleeperhead’ is an instant earworm and having seen them at
Norwich’s Sound & Vision festival last autumn, I can confirm that their live
show is just as rampantly fruity as their studio releases. They head out on an
extensive UK tour with Sundara Karma next month, a show well worth heading down
to if you can.
DIY,
it has to be said that you sure know your talent. Ta for a fantastic night of
free music and kicking off 2016 with a bang.
DIY’s
‘Hello 2016’ series concludes this Tuesday January 26th at London’s
Old Blue Last, with free performances from Pumarosa, Cloud Castle Lake,
Babeheaven and Sälen.
